Shepard's Flock
by Pokybyte
Summary: A forgotten krogan on Korlus, a broke quarian on the Citadel, a naive human on Omega. Those three and many others have been affected directly by Shepard's actions. Actions that will inspire them, in time, to take up the fight against the Reapers and anyone who stands against her.
1. Chapter 1: Krogan Reject

**Everything belongs to Bioware.**

**Korlus**

Another shotgun blast hit the low wall, taking out a good chunk of concrete but protecting the blue-armoured Batarian. The Krogan roared in frustration at its weapon's ineffectiveness at range, stomping around in a childlike tantrum.

"Let it get angry!" shouted the Batarian. "It's going to walk into our line of fire eventually. This is the last one for our squad today, drinks on me when we get back to base. You guys have done well today."

He looked at the creature hiding in its make-shift fort assembled out of the planet's ever-present debris. It was screwed with just its shotgun, and soon enough it would charge right into their grenades and a hail of bullets. They always did in the end.

Suddenly, his attention was drawn further, where a glint of black armour crushed his dreams of a quiet end to the day. "Mendoza," he barked, pointing in the direction he had seen something move, "check out that movement over there!"

The human's head exploded before he could even acknowledge the order, his blood and brains scattering as the body slumped to the floor. Before the Batarian commander could react, he saw the rest of his squad thrown off the wall to their doom by a biotic blast of such power that it dislodged their concrete cover. He screamed obscenities as he fired his assault rifle in the general direction of where the attack had come from, but there was nothing. Nothing, until his shields suddenly overloaded and a red-haired woman flew towards him in a blue blur, her determined face the last thing he saw before both her fists hit him in the chest and launched him in the air.

Astounded, the massive red-and-white-armoured Krogan lowered his shotgun and stared as Commander Shepard finished off her opponent with a fiery shotgun blast in mid-air. He had been fighting this squad for several hours and had managed to kill only one, whilst these small fleshy things had ended the battle in seconds. Okeer had been right: he really was a failed Krogan. Perhaps these tiny creatures could tell him? They were different. They had helped him kill those who sought to end his short life. Though one of the fleshy things aimed a pistol at him, he was relaxed. They meant him no harm.

"Don't move a fucking muscle, Dino, or your ass will be grass!" threatened the naked fleshy thing.

"You. You don't smell like this world," he spoke softly, feeling his vocal chords form his life's first complete sentence. "Seven night cycles and I have felt only the need to kill. But... you... something makes me speak."

He felt a surge of realisation as he remembered something the voice in the water had told him. _Instinct. _He was sure he had a good instinct.

"He's only a week old?" asked a fleshy thing he recognised as his race's enemy. It wore dark blue armour. _Why don't I feel anger towards him? He tried to exterminate us. Wait... without him I would not exist. Turians are not my enemy, they are the enemy of Okeer._

"They must breed them at full size ready to kill," answered the small battlemaster. "Not much of an improvement over regular mercs if they need training."

The Krogan shook his head as he heard the words. They were wrong. There was a surge of anger that he managed to control. It had just been ignorance. How could they know? He had to make a considerable effort to speak, his tongue almost cramping up under the new stress.

"Bred... to kill. No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to, but it's not why I was flushed from Glass Mother. Survival is what I hear in my head, against the enemy that threatens all my kind - but I failed even before waking. That is what the voice in the water said. That is why I wait here."

He was referring to the genophage and to the care even the weak received because there were already so few young Krogan. Like this, there was no natural selection, no survival of the fittest. The only criteria now was being able to resist the disease The voice in the water had told him he was a failure, that he would not survive. But he thought otherwise. He would show his strength, prove that his life was not worthless by killing all the fleshy things with blue armour. Apart from the one that served the powerful flying fleshy-thing.

"Can you show me the laboratory? I need to speak with Okeer," said the battlemaster.

Laboratory. The word made images flash up in his mind. They were not his images; they were imprints brought by the Scratch of Glass Mother. Glass Mother had been a laboratory.

The Krogan pointed towards the large structure. "The... Glass Mother... she's up, past the broken parts, behind many of you fleshy things. I will show you."

Cracking his neck and dusting off his three-fingered hands, the beast walked to a large steel panel he had placed there earlier to block the path and picked it up with only a little effort, then tossed it aside. He looked at the three fleshy things, wondering if he should go with them. _If they ask me to, I'll follow, _he decided. The battlemaster had shown impressive fighting skills during the battle, most notably flying across the debris field in a blur and throwing her opponent off a bridge with a shotgun blast. _ She would bring me enemies that would prove me worthy of existence. And she could teach me how to fly._

"Impressive," the naked female fleshy thing said, flashing him the hint of a smile. It was the first he had ever seen. "And dangerous. Come on Shepard, let's go," she then added.

The three walked away, disappointment burning inside him. Why had they just left him there to die? The fleshy things normally had a hard time squeezing through such obstacles, he had moved it effortlessly. They had called him "dangerous." _Dangerous and impressive? Is that all I am? The voice in the water said I was made out of the strongest Krogan warriors in existence. _

There were no more mercenaries that day, or the day after, and so eventually out of boredom and hunger the Krogan decided to go up and see what had happened. At first he'd had concerns about knowing the way, but those fears were quickly alleviated when he saw the trail of destruction Shepard had left in her wake. First, he'd seen his dead brethren strewn about, but as time went on more and more of the bodies had been smaller, fleshy things. _How did three of them kill so many?_ _ I am not called by Okeer anymore. I am called by the Shepard._

When he reached Glass Mother, he wasn't surprised to see Okeer was dead too. His final message was playing on repeat.

"Shepard," said the dark, raspy voice. "If I knew why the Collectors wanted humans, I would tell you, but everything is in my prototype. My legacy is pure. This... one soldier, this grunt. Perfect."

_I am not perfect, _the krogan reminded himself. _I will never be good enough to serve Shepard, or the Krogan as a whole. I am nothing. I am a son of Glass Mother, not of nature. Where do I go now? There is no escape from this planet for me. Okeer wasted me. Nobody wants me. _

The krogan roared, wallowing in self-pity, anger and confusion.

He was interrupted by the familiar click of a grenade-launcher being loaded. He turned and saw a familiar-looking asari aiming one at him.

"You," he started. "I know you. Who are you?"

She smirked in recognition. "Ha! I knew it was worth coming back here to check things out. I am Rana Thanoptis, and you must be the reason I was even allowed to help Okeer conduct his experiments. Take that helmet off, I want to see your face."

The krogan tilted his head to the side in confusion. "No."

Her face betrayed a hint of surprise at his refusal but she quickly showed her anger. "Do as I say, krogan! I made you! You were my experiment! You don't even know who you are!"

She caught the krogan off-guard with what she was saying, but she was wrong in every way. _I am Okeer's failed experiment, and my name is... what did the naked fleshy-thing call me? _

"I am Dino," he said, crossing his arms. "And with Okeer dead, I belong to no clan."

Surprisingly, Rana laughed, lowering her grenade-launcher. "Dino? Who told you that? No, you are more than some ancient creature. I filled you with eezo when you were just a foetus in your tank. You will be a great biotic battlemaster, and you're worth a lot of credits."

Dino was immediately reminded of his saviour just a few days prior. "Will I be as strong as the Shepard?" he asked. "I want to be able to do what I saw her do."

It was Rana's turn to be surprised. "You saw Shepard? Hm. Never mind, you're alive and that's all that matters. Yes, you can be stronger than her. The Blood Pack will train you to be the most powerful fighter there ever was!"

Dino was less than two weeks old and couldn't know he was being manipulated. _Stronger even than the Shepard. _

"Come on, Dino," said Rana, walking off and motioning him to follow with her hand. "I've got a shuttle outside ready to take us somewhere nice!"

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

**Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. Next time, we'll introduce another character! You have the choice between a volus, a quarian and a human next – leave your preference in the comments.**


	2. Chapter 2: Quarian Reject

**Time for the second chapter! **

**

* * *

**

**The Citadel – Zakera Ward**

Lia'Vael nar Ulnay looked through the list of ships that were available. Most of the second-hand models were very old and basically falling apart, but there was one ship that peaked her interest. It was an old Turian medical ship that had fought in the First Contact War with the humans. Well, not really fought, but it had been there and taken a hit the turians deemed too expensive to fix, so now it was in a parking lot somewhere in Citadel space, wherever that volus kept them. She knew she'd have no problems fixing it because she was a damn good tech. _And I'd be able to show it if someone finally hired me!_

Yes, she was bitter. She'd thought it was a stroke of genius coming to the Citadel to make some cash before she did anything else. Oh, how wrong she'd been...

She walked out of the shop dejectedly. She was trapped, trapped in this ocean of souls all looking for a way to _screw her over _because of her race. It made her so angry. She walked past a warehouse of some sort where she saw a turian arguing angrily with a salarian about a refund. As she walked on, it occurred to her she might be able to fix the turian's problem when suddenly she was snapped out of her reverie by a bump in the stomach.

"Watch it, _clanless_," said a voice filled with malice and disdain from the ball of fat and enviro-suit that was the volus. _ That is _every_ volus, _she reminded herself.

"Sorry, I was looking straight ahead thinking of something," she started with a hint of sarcasm. "I didn't think of looking down."

The volus' round eyes blinked a few times, his breathing quickening. "Why, you... you insolent little _tramp. _I could, pay a krogan, to have you taken care of, permanently."

"Whatever," she replied, imitating his troubled breathing. "Maybe, you, should, watch, where, you're, go, ing, bosh', tet! Now leave me alone and go back to whatever it is you were doing!"

With that, she stormed off, away and far from him so that she would have nothing to do with him anymore. _Back to the dealership. Maybe I can convince the dealer to keep the ship for a while if I offer him a good price._ She knew when not to push her luck, and this was as far as she was willing to take this confrontation. Best to take it out on the used ship salesman. Volus had a reputation to sue you into oblivion if you weren't careful, but if they wanted to sell you something they were as civil as they could be. Which still wasn't really saying much.

_What am I going to do with the rest of my day? Zakera Ward was as much of a pain to find a job in than the others. I could try to hack a bank terminal... No! Keelah, what am I saying? I couldn't possibly bring something I stole or bought with stolen money to the flotilla. People would ask questions. _

She heard a commotion behind her and was surprised to see the Volus pulling a human C-Sec officer with one hand and pointing at her with the other. He started shouting "It's her! There she is! Arrest her!" and Lia got ready to run._ No! I didn't do anything! Whatever it is..._

"She's the pickpocket. I'm sure of it!" he started. "This clanless bumped into me and when I checked, my credit chit was gone!"

The human eyed her suspiciously. "Is that true, Quarian? I've seen you hanging around here, state your business on the citadel!"

With the attacks coming fast and harsh, Lia was initially overwhelmed. "I'm here to work and buy a ship, officer. Not steal!"

The officer was about to start speaking again when he saw movement behind the volus – which admittedly wasn't too hard, thanks to his size. _Another quarian?_ He wondered. _Too much of a coincidence for there to be two here. _ "Hey! You! Quarian! Come here! I need to speak with you."

To the officer's surprise, a stunning redhead in black armour and a damned near perfect brunette in a skin-tight body suit followed the new quarian. The redhead had very strange scars in her face and didn't look like she was in the mood to be fucked with, so he decided she would not be involved in the conversation, no matter what happened.

"What the hell's going on here? What do you want?" she asked angrily.

_Oh shit, this ain't going to be easy, _he thought, regretting his decision to call the other quarian over already. She clearly wasn't part of some gang. "Ah, I'm from C-Sec, my name is Tammert. Sorry, I just wanted to talk to your quarian, but didn't realise she was with anyone. Since she's not alone, I'll let you go and continue taking the statement, thanks. Move along."

"There's nothing to talk about," said the Volus, who the officer had ascertained was called Kortun. "I felt her hand go into my pocket. This clanless is a thief. And I want her arrested. You know what quarians are like, they take anything not welded to the deck."

Lia was flabbergasted at the accusation and insults. "What-? I was just walking by! I did nothing. Just because I'm a quarian-!"

Tammert also looked disapprovingly at the Volus. "I need you to stop, and take a deep breath ok?"

"You're mocking me earthclan! Just because the Vol-clan need-" replied Kortun, outraged.

The man rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. "It was a poor choice of words sir, I agree and apologise. My bad."

The redhead laughed. "Wow. Great investigation you're leading there, Sherlock! What a load of crap. You say you're falsely accused?" she added, turning to the Quarian.

Lia sighed before explaining her side of the story again. "I was walking to the used ship dealer when he barged into me outside the Sirta Foundation. He didn't stop or say he was sorry. A minute later, he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me of stealing his damn chit!"

The woman looked to be thinking for a bit before asking if the credit chit could have fallen out.

"I guess," answered the young pilgrim. "All I know is that I didn't take it."

The next question took Lia by surprise. "You spend a lot of time down at the used ship dealer's?"

_Great. Another racist, just what I needed. Probably some merc who's in charge of security for _that _volus. There's just no escaping them. But she does have a quarian with her... maybe I can get a job! _"Yeah, they've got a lot of nice models. I'd like to buy one and take it back to the fleet but..."

The redhead then said something even more unexpected. "Funny how every time I meet one of you pilgrims you're in trouble of some sort." _Did she... just wink at that quarian? Who is she? "_Your pilgrimage isn't going so well, I take it?"

"No," started Lia. And then the rest came flooding out, finally someone she could just release her frustration to. "I- I came here thinking there'd be a lot of work. EVA stuff. Salvage. Fixing all the damage the Geth attack caused. Everywhere I went to apply, signs said "Not hiring quarians." And the other people would give me mean looks."

The redhead nodded and turned to the volus. "So how does her running into you mean she stole your credit chit?"

"That's how pickpockets work," he replied. "They bump into you and use that as a cover for rifling your pockets. You can't turn your back on these clanless quarians. Thieves, all of them."

It was the other quarian's turn to get angry. "Quarians are only forced to steal when people like you won't let them have real jobs!" she shouted, clearly having a difficult time controlling her anger.

"And to think, that my taxes pay to support, you here." replied the volus scathingly. "Go back, to your fleet, clanless."

"I am clan Zorah, crew of the starship Neema. And you are an idiot."

"Shut up, volus," said Shepard angrily. "Tali, he's not worth getting worked up about."

Realisation flooded through Lia as she heard the name. Tali'Zorah vas Neema? The quarian who had helped save The Citadel? Who had killed more geth before ending her pilgrimage than most quarians did in their entire lives? The one who travelled with... Commander Shepard?

Tali warned the volus as she spoke to her captain. "My brain agrees with you, but my gut tells me that I should jack his suit's olfactory receptors so that everything smells like refuse."

Lia couldn't stifle her giggle. _First you gang up on me, now you get a taste of your own medicine!_

With the C-Sec officer staring at Miranda's boobs, Shepard decided to continue the investigation. "And you're sure you didn't leave your chit at the Sirta Foundation?"

"Of course not!" answered the volus angrily. "You think I'd make a mistake like that? I didn't even buy anything there, the chit stayed in my pocket."

"Okay. Officer Tammert, I'm going to do your job and go, you know, _investigate._"

With that she jogged off towards the shops with her friends. Forcing himself not to drool after the women, he managed to say something about bringing any evidence to a C-Sec officer, but he wasn't really sure what he was saying. When they rounded the corner, he turned back to his case, the two aliens looking at him angrily. _ Well, they would be, if I could see their faces._

"Okay, I'll need your full names, please," he said finally, getting the event report ready on his datapad.

"I am Kortun, of the Netwa'ark clan," said the volus.

The quarian followed with "Lia'Vael nar Ulnay."

_I don't know how to spell those crazy names, but I'm just going to pretend I do. Man I hate this job..._

"Age?"

"Fifty Galactic Standard Years."

"I'm nineteen," answered Lia.

Before Tammert could continue, the redhead was back. "Look I already told you, this is a C-Sec matter and I need you to move along."

"I found the credit chit," she said, ignoring him. "You forgot your credit chit at Seronis Applications. The clerk is holding it for you."

Nothing but Kortun's breaths could be heard for a few seconds as everyone pondered the information.

"Oh. Well. The quarian could have stolen it," the diminuative alien finally said.

"And on that note, I'll close this event report. But I'll be watching you," said Tammert point at Lia. "Get a permanent residence or I'll run you in for vagrancy."

Lia knew the man had said the wrong thing when he saw the blood seemingly run into Shepard's iris, giving her red eyes to complement the hair.

"Are you two serious?" She started, her voice full of anger. She bent down to the volus and looked him right in the eyes. "You falsely accused this girl of stealing from you. All you have to say now is that she 'could' have stolen it? No. You're going to make this up to her somehow. Or I _will _find you."

After shoving the ball away into the crowd, Shepard turned to the officer, standing up again and moving right into his face. "And you. She gets harassed and insulted by this guy, and you throw in a threat to arrest her for vagrancy?"

_Who the hell does she think she is? Better put her back in her place. _"How about if I run you in for obstruction of justice? How would you like that?"

The woman's face fell for a second, showing a straight face he only just recognised. _She seems familiar. Damn it, who is she?_

"Obstruction of justice?" replied Shepard, cocking an eyebrow. "First of all, it took me about two minutes to allow justice to happen, and you've been standing here so long doing nothing since Christ knows when. That's not obstruction, that's enabling. Secondly and, let's face it, more importantly: you're going to run in a spectre?"

"Aw shit"_. Screw this, I'm outta here._

The C-Sec officer walked off without another word.

Gratitude was flowing through Lia's mind. "Thank you, thank you so much. I really thought I was going to be in trouble then. I wish I could give you more than just words..." she added, sinking her head and wringing her hands together.

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Shepard. "That C-Sec guy was an ass and the volus was a fat, round, bumbling idiot."

"Thanks again. How come you know so much about quarians? It's unusual for humans. Although from what I hear you are unusual!"

Shepard gave a hearty laugh, the quarian's innocence reminding her of better times. "I had a quarian help me defeat Sovereign. She helped me on my crusade against Sovereign, I allowed her to collect data on the geth. Oh, and we're good friends!"

They laughed.

"Well," started Lia, "thanks for saving everyone from the geth. They really nearly-"

"Oh goddamnit it wasn't. The geth," interrupted Shepard harshly. "The reapers are our enemy and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that stay a secret. Stop getting distracted by the geth!"

The redheaded woman had shown Lia the same red eyes she had threatened the volus with and now she was scared.

"I'm sorry, Lia," she then added awkwardly after a nudge from Tali. "It's been a stressful day. Look, are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine," answered the vagrant. "I mean, most nights I eat nutrient paste in a turian shelter, but I'm surviving." _ Please offer me a job please offer me a job please!_

"We're glad to hear it, Lia'Vael," said Tali. "Good luck, I hope your pilgrimage starts working out better soon."

And then they were gone. _Keelah! Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, you are such a Bosh'tet! Why didn't you just ask for a contact, a name, anything to get you started... _Only then did she notice the little light flashing in her HUD indicating that she'd received a message. Turning on her Omnitool she keyed in her password...

**Subject: **Kortun Netwa'ark

Dear Ms Vael!

You have been strongly recommended for the position of mechanic aboard my merchant ship, the _Cashcow_. The man who recommended you is normally strongly against the clanless, so you must have very impressive abilities or powers of persuasion. Regardless, he owes me a favour if I employ you, and I couldn't possibly let the opportunity for such power go unused.

You will receive fifty credits per hour and bonus accomodation and food. Should you require medical care when aboard (No old sicknesses will be treated unless life-threatening) it is available.

Report at the docks in an hour, we'll be leaving soon.

Regards

Pitne For

Dock 49

_Delivering Biotic Enhancement Products to a neighbourhood near you!_

_

* * *

_

**I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Well, I introduced a quarian and a volus, so I hope everyone's at least a little happy :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Human Reject

**Omega**

**'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''**

The man ran through the large hall towards the lab. Dead vorcha and krogan littered the floor, their bodies horribly disfigured by bullets and special powers he barely understood. He remembered walking through here at the beginning of the plague, when it hadn't become so bad yet. People had sat on the benches here and joked with each other, gone shopping... and now it was basically destroyed. _Well, _that's_ not strictly Shepard's fault, they were armed and probably wanted to storm the base, like the Blue Suns tried from the other side. _With a shudder, he remembered treating the very mercs who had attacked them after they got cut down by the mechs. One had been screaming for his mother as he died in Daniel's arms, his wounds too serious to heal at a mere clinic.

Daniel was an average-sized human with a receding hairline, his short, unkempt hair betraying the fact that he didn't care about his looks very much at all. The stress associated with being a doctor, working 19 hour days trying to find a cure for the mysterious disease, had taken its toll on his body the last few weeks. For the first time in his life, he was starting to look his age – normally, people always assumed he was ten years younger than his thirty-four. He was exhausted when he flew through the door, finally safe within the confines of the clinic. Just as he was about sigh in relief, the professor arrived and immediately began talking.

"Ah, Daniel. Good to see you made it back. Sent someone to look for you, looked like a capable team. Seems they did not disappoint."

"Capable?" exclaimed Daniel. "They-"

"No time, tell me later," interrupted Mordin. "Environmental systems are offline, patients must be kept alive until they are restored. Come, much work to do."

Daniel followed without another word, fully focused on saving lives again. A very sickly batarian had arrived moments before, clearly suffering of the advanced stages of the plague, and been placed upon a bed. Mordin and Daniel once again melted into their routine. They worked seamlessly by now, the last few weeks allowing them to build up enough knowledge on the batarian body to place the IV without spending three minutes looking for a vein on the thick, leathery skin. This was why Daniel had applied for the position as assistant here: to learn. And he had learned a lot from the salarian doctor, be it about medicine, the way the galaxy worked or even about human history.

Suddenly, as Mordin used a scalpel to cut open the batarian's chest, he started talking. "Daniel. Have important news. Probably leaving soon. Want you to take over the clinic."

Daniel nearly dropped the rest of the medical tools in shock. "But I'm not ready! The apprenticeship's barely started and you're leaving? This was supposed to last two years! Can't I go with you?"

Mordin took an uncharacteristically long pause to think about what had just been said. "Will stay in contact with you of course. However, more important problems than plague in galaxy now that cure has been found. Cannot take you with me, too young, too inexperienced. Could jeopardise mission."

"With all due respect," began Daniel, "what about the safety of the patients? Supplies? Equipment? If you leave with the mechs, we'll all die and I'll run out of medical supplies before next week anyway. Aria only tolerates us because of you running this operation. Without the great professor Mordin Solus to protect us we'll be dead by tomorrow."

The batarian wriggled a little bit as Mordin looked up at his apprentice. That was the kind of drive and dedication he wanted in his students, he'd chosen well. "Will leave mechs and medical supplies with you, only taking private possessions. Believe you can do this. Will talk to Aria."

"You're not going with that woman are you?" asked Daniel, distraught as he remembered previous events. "When I was out I got into a spot of trouble with some batarians. I was talking my way out of it when she barged into the room. They pointed a gun at me as if taking me hostage, and she promised them safe passage if they let me go. They did, and she and her team shot them dead!"

Mordin didn't look shocked, merely concentrating on removing a particularly nasty puss-filled growth from his patient's lung. Then, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, the low hum of ventilation systems started again. The salarian doctor looked up for a moment, a satisfied smirk appearing on his face before he continued the delicate procedure.

_I know he's listening to me, _thought Daniel angrily. _So why doesn't he react? _ After what seemed like an age, the doctor had finally managed to cut through a particularly tough piece of tissue and was busy disinfecting the now bleeding wound, occasionally sticking out a hand asking for a tool. Daniel always knew what tool his master wanted; as such, they worked in silence until they finished up.

"Patient will most likely make a full recovery," said Mordin. "Frankly amazed he made it to the clinic, Shepard only gave him one dose of medigel."

"One dose?" shouted Daniel in surprise and outrage. "But he was about to die! He almost didn't make it and the only reason he's not coughing up his lungs right now is that we operated. Imagine the pain he was going through when he crawled here. This is unbelievable! He could be dead right now."

Mordin looked at Daniel questioningly. "What he could be is irrelevant, Daniel. A second dosage of medigel would have been a waste, has no real effect on plague and would have done nothing but increase pain threshold of patient – could have come to clinic too late, consequences deplorable."

Daniel wanted to keep arguing but he was interrupted by the unmistakable thump of a krogan walking around the clinic, which could only mean that Shepard was back. The massive beast she had with her was an amazing sight to behold: unlike other krogan he had seen before, who were usually brown or almost black, this one was grey and it stood much taller than its species usually did. Her other companion was a black man who seemed just as laid back as before, just that last time he'd been pumping bullets into living beings. It boggled Daniel's mind that it was possible that he _didn't _change, that he was genuinely as care-free killing as he was when flirting with the clinic receptionist. Well, as much as Daniel disliked them he could tell Sarah had taken a liking to the man – maybe brawn really was just sexier than brains, he wondered.

Mordin picked up a databad and quickly scanned it with his impossibly quick eyes. "Environmental systems engaged, airborne viral levels dropping, patients improving, vorcha retreating... well done Shepard. Thank you."

"Professor!" exclaimed Daniel. "How can you thank these... monsters! They butchered those batarians in cold blood."

Shepard's eyes seemed to turn red as a fire was seemingly ignited within her. _You've done it now Daniel – you're dead. _"I risked my life to save you – hell, I saved this whole damned district! Now you're judging me?"

She stared straight at him, red eyes daring him to contradict her, to push her over the edge. He decided to look away and turned to Mordin for support. There was no way the professor would accept this kind of aggression coming his way in the clinic. The woman might have been dangerous, but Mordin had defended the clinic almost by himself.

The salarian sighed before shaking his head. "Shepard is right. Batarians tortured you, would have killed you, right to kill them."

Daniel couldn't believe what he was hearing. His role-model was actually siding with the murderous psychobitch from hell?

"Professor how can you say that?" he exploded. "You're a doctor, you believe in helping people!"

"Lots of ways to help people," chided Mordin, clearly amused at his student's idealism. "Sometimes heal people. Sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps." When no understanding seemed to be registering on Daniel's face, the professor decided to try a different approach. "Go check on the patients. Lots of work to do. Think about what I said."

Daniel stormed off, datapad in hand. _Is he crazy? What the hell is he doing with that woman? _He decided to distract himself by looking at the current patients and seeing who needed assistance the most. He was surprised to find a human couple on the list, although no injuries seemed to be present. _Who are they? What do they want here? _The young doctor was far from being racist, but he decided to go check on them first; if nothing else he could kick them out if they were looking for some drugs. _Again? Surely Aria's men and the mercs have Omega so saturated with that shit that they don't need to come here of all places to get their fix. _It repeatedly boggled his mind that anyone came here to get high, it was a stupidly dangerous place to get your stuff. Break the quarantine, sneak past the mercs and Vorcha, only for some painkillers? Who was that stupid? And yet he'd had to turn away five people just this week.

As he walked into the waiting room, however, he immediately changed his facial expression from one of ice-cold get-out-of-my-clinic to one of surprise. "Jim? Mary? What are you doing here? Is everything alright?"

The two well-dressed humans looked rather happy to see him but still very worried. Mary was the one to reply in the end. "Yes, we're fine. Things were heating up near the apartment so we go the hell out. The looters are everywhere and willing to kill as well as the mercs."

Daniel raised his eyebrows at the news. He knew from his own, very recent experience that the southern side of the district was marred in warfare and death, but he hadn't been aware of the north being in such chaos too. "I thought you bought yourself one of those unhackable doors a few months ago. You could have stayed inside, where it was safe?"

"We saw Christine and Thomas in their apartment on the way here," said Jim. "They had the same one installed before us and got killed by looters – it was only a matter of time before they got to us. Well, it would have been if the gangsters hadn't been killed as well."

Realisation dawned as Daniel put two and two together, but he decided to ask to make sure. "Let me guess: a woman with red hair killed everything outside your flat and you decided to get the hell out."

Jim smiled awkwardly as he filled in the details. "The Blue Suns had been trying to get into our flat for hours when we suddenly heard screams and lots of shooting. It was over pretty quickly and we thought it was over, but I saw that our door was being hacked. Thirty seconds later in she walks, as if the door had never been locked. She gave us a hard time for wanting to stick around at home and told us to follow fifteen minutes after she left. We did as she told us and the only obstacle we faced was having to dodge dead bodies, blood and guts everywhere."

"That's also when we decided to check on Christine and Thomas," interjected Mary. "Their bullet-wounds were old, but the looters had only died recently. We think the woman killed them. The murdering scum deserved it too."

It saddened Daniel to see his friends in such a state. He cursed Shepard for making him feel thankful that she was there. She had saved two good people, avenged two more and killed countless murderers. It wasn't hard for him to understand _why _people agreed with her way of doing things; it was just that he didn't agree that killing everyone was the right solution. What if she got manipulated into thinking someone had murdered someone they hadn't? What then? What about rehabilitating people into functioning members of society? Not even the families of the dead were usually at peace after the murderer had been killed. No, they wanted something else, less bloodshed and more positive thinking.

"Well I'm glad you're here. Make yourselves at home, we'll keep you safe until all this blows over," he announced with a warm smile. "For what it's worth, that should be pretty soon. Commander Shepard, the woman who cleared the way for you, cleared out the Vorcha menace and inserted our cure into the district's ventilation system. It won't be long until the plague is completely cleared up and you can go home again."

They thanked him and he moved on to a turian sitting on a bench with her head leaning on the wall behind him. She had her eyes closed and looked like she was concentrating very hard on not releasing the contents of her stomach on the floor in a shower of explosive vomit. Daniel took out his old-fashioned mag-light and shone it into her eyes, pulling down on the hard skin. The plague affected every species differently: turians were initially nauseous and their eyes would weep a dark, black mucus. It looked horrible but was easy to spot, and this particular female looked particularly stricken. Female turians were very similar to the males and only had a slightly more feminine form and less rigid fringe on their head. Looking down at his datapad, he noticed she had been given the cure from Dr Solus not long before and probably just needed time. Still, he decided to inject a stimulant that would act against the nausea, some sugar and some vitamins to get her back on her feet. She needed a few days of bedrest, that was for sure.

Mordin cleared his voice behind him and Daniel spun around.

"Daniel, know this is surprising to you. Surprising to me too," he began. "My belief in you is firm. You know where everything is?"

The man could only nod in return, as despite himself he couldn't be angry at his mentor.

"It's been an honour working with you, Dr Solus. I hope I'll hear from you soon!"

The salarian moved forward and stretched out his hand. "Has been an honour for me too, Dr McIntire. So long and good luck."

With that, he turned away, smiling and walking away followed by an automated trolley following him filled with all his things. He looked around the waiting room and all he could see was more work. Sarah was sitting at the desk and he caught her eyes. She had a beaming smile and- _did she just flutter her eyelashes at me?- _he walked over.

"So you're the boss now huh?" she said seductively. "So what's going to change around here?"

Daniel smiled as he realised Dr Solus had been right.

"Nothing at all," he answered.

**''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''**

**Soooo yeah a couple of months break. Needed to get this chapter out of the way.**

**In case you're wondering: yes, a lot is going to change, and soon :D**

**This is it as far as the viewpoints go, there are only going to be three „main" characters in this fic. Question to you: would our friend Dino look like Grunt under his armour?**


End file.
